Irony of our Age

Let’s cut to the chase. It’s machine, invented by man, that shows us human, how to behave consistently, efficiently and even humanly. “I am sorry, I don’t understand” (human wouldn’t be that honest!). From flight runway to fashion runway, AI is now here to stay.

It has done away with middle men e.g. printing, book shops, magazine stands, brochure designer, soon, fashion models.

I was surprised while watching the DNC Convention (live) that Tim (machine) texted me while giving the acceptance speech of his life.

Omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.

The promises of yesteryears, which belong to God Almighty, now made available at the push of a button.

Man can become god-like, machine can become man-like, and the gods are relegated into the corner (Chinese restaurants feature Fortune God near their cashiers).

There increasingly are less need for learning how to spell, how to look up a word (dictionary???, what’s that), even reading a book (in Japan, books are read from Right to Left, last page first. How would that work in digital version???).

We read so we won’t be alone. Hardcover books, when opened, embrace us, pull us into the intrigue of the mystery (if that’s the genre you are into).

I grew up unhugged and un-tugged (to bed), due to my Mom’s extremely busy schedule (grading her students’ homework late into the night, teacher-student ratio: 1-57). This was on top of the touch-avert Asian culture (bowing so we can stay 6 ft apart, even before Covid) and she herself had been an orphan sleeping in Lycee’s boarding school.No wonder Asian love Kungfu, with lots of kicking, a contact sports to “bridge the hug gap” (that’s been there for centuries).

Now, to make up for lost time, I am surrounded with books, books, and books.

I am not a monogamous reader. I flirt, flip and browse. Sometimes, I even read the conclusion first, just in case (akin to eating dessert first).

The irony of our Age e.g. Kennedy Jr not for Harris, and Bush not for Trump.

We still need to see consistency, norms and some semblance of order and predictability.

Traffic safety law, SALT treaty, and peace treaty.

Another irony I came across the other day. It relates to LBJ, the young congressman who tried to bring electrification to the Hill Country, TX (population 1 per square mile at that time; so sparse that it wasn’t qualified and not worthy of tax-dollar spending).

Then he ended up ordered the poles and wires for An Giang Province of the Vietnam’s Mekong due to his sinking into the thicket of things.

Now I live in denser population, 100 degrees for 100 days at a time, as a striver and settler from a distant country to the Hill Country.

You tell me, what’s next on the agenda? Rural broadband for all! Gaza, Ukraine, Kabul?

Meanwhile, machine acts more like man, man learns less than machine. Both want someday to be like God i.e. omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. Keep striving, tweaking, and nudging. That’s how we did back in the VoIP days, transforming and transitioning human voice (analog) into machine signals (digital) via a process called quantization.

Just as my thoughts via the keyboard and your decoding them. In the hope that we come to an understanding, that we can’t stop progress. But someone must be at the helm, with steady hand, or else, we have a runaway train. I was scared out of my wits in two instances: a free flying chopper blade that floored us (see My Sliding Door blog) and at Three-Mile-Island, when as a news intern, I ran in the opposite direction of frantic residents fleeing an impending disaster.

Irony of our Age. Those who want to live, don’t or can’t (machine). Those who don’t want to live (World’s oldest 116 as of late ) do. Rest my case. Now, you deliberate.